By Dr. Mary Andrus DAT, ATR-BC, LCPC, LPC
​I had the pleasure of talking at length with Jimmy Morris of PsychSessions.com about the complexity of art therapy the profession, specifics of what art therapists do, who they treat, their training and education and how they become licensed. If you are curious about trying out art therapy or considering entering the profession of art therapy this might be a great place to start to learn a bit more about it! 
You can download the session from itunes here. Enjoy!

by Tricia Morales ​ATR, LCPC

​An individual I worked with in art therapy asked me to help her create new meaning for a pair of jeans she used as inspiration for continued restriction and diminished life in her eating disorder. Together we worked to create new meaning through art therapy by turning this life limiting pair of jeans into a symbol of hope for recovery in the creation of a dream catcher. The dream catcher was formed by cutting up the jeans into strips, dying them different colors, and weaving them around the outside of the dream catcher hoop. This jean covered hoop contained the repetitive soothing motion of woven yarn to create the web to catch her dreams for recovery from her eating disorder. The remaining strips of jeans were used to hang from the bottom of the hoop. The final addition of a loop of yarn at the top provided the completion of this dream catcher to be hung in a space of her choosing as a reminder of the possibilities in recovery – finding a new way to relate to her body via the process of physically creating this art piece.

Millions of men and women suffer from eating disorders at some point in their lifetime. These disorders include anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, binge eating disorder, or OSFED – other specified feeding or eating disorder according to the DSM-5. (http://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org/get-facts-eating-disorders)

If you are struggling with an eating disorder or have a loved one that is, art therapy at ATSC could be a necessary starting place, change in treatment approach, or addition to current treatment. The story above highlights the trust built in relationship between the patient and art therapist to find new meaning for a pair of jeans and her body image that continued to hold her prisoner in her eating disorder. The following is an overview of common underlying feelings, co-morbid diagnoses, and additional treatment used for the healing process of art therapy with women and men that suffer from eating disorders.

Brief Eating Disorder Definition
Quickly I would like to provide you a brief definition of a few eating disorders most commonly seen, anorexia (process of starving oneself at times to death), bulimia (bingeing and purging through the use of vomiting, over-exercise, laxative use, diuretics, starvation, etc.), binge-eating disorder (consumption of large quantities of food), and a combination of the above mentioned disorders.

Common Underlying Feelings and Co-morbid Diagnoses
As the eating disorder progresses it often leads to increased isolation. Shame experienced about the use of eating disorder behaviors leads to increased disconnection from self and others. Food has likely become the most intimate relationship in your life assisting with avoidance of emotions. Others in your life may not understand leading you to experience more despair. Prolonged social isolation intensifies experiences of depression, anxiety, self-harm, suicidal ideation and other related disorders. Through art therapy you can begin to form a trusting, non-judgmental relationship with the art therapist and art supplies to increase feelings of connection and practice expression of underlying feelings of shame, loneliness, sadness, anxiety, pride, guilt, or anger. 

One of the most significant steps is working to admit that your relationship to food is unhealthy. The role you have given food in your life is self-created for coping with pain. This pain you have hidden under your relationship to food is what can be explored through art therapy for healing. This pain may stem from childhood – not feeling like you are enough or past verbal, physical, emotional, or sexual abuse. PTSD is a common co-morbid diagnosis for those suffering from an eating disorder.

Art provides a safe way to explore the hurt or loss you have witnessed or experienced that you may not be able to put into words. Through art you can practice being kind to your inner child. This can be accomplished using collage, painting, drawing, sculpture, weaving, or other media. Taking the images of past hurt you are experiencing in your mind and placing them on paper, canvas, or another surface of choosing can help you find a new way to relate to the image via writing or dialogue. This work provides new understanding about self, your relationship to eating, past trauma, sexuality, challenging emotions, and your body.

Mindfulness Practice in Art Therapy
An important part of art therapy is the use of mindful practice. By actively focusing on art making you are practicing mindfulness participate, which can lead to slowed heart rate, breathing, and potential feelings of relaxation. Mindful art helps give your mind a rest from obsessive thoughts about food (Another common co-morbid diagnosis is OCD). This can be a practice you continue outside the art therapy sessions by starting an art journal or altered book. This book can be a place for you when feeling emotionally dysregulated or uncertain to let go of perfection and allow yourself to freely create inside the safe pages of your book. Through creating you are allowing yourself the necessary connection to your emotions leading to increased experiences of positive feelings of accomplishment, connection, and joy. You may not have allowed yourself to experience these emotions due to feeling unworthy. This space for new understanding may help you clarify an approach you want to take in an important relationship or depict the internal conflict you are experiencing as you work towards recovery from your eating disorder.

Important Additional Services
Eating disorders are complex and often require a combination of treatment providers including a therapist, family therapist, dietician, MD, and psychiatrist. With physical complications to the body present within this disorder it is recommended to seek assistance from medical professionals. They can assist with the potential for re-nourishing the body and mind by managing after effects of purging/restricting/overeating/other physically challenging behaviors.

Art therapy at ATSC can provide a place to begin exploring the needs for treatment and work you are willing to do in recapturing your mind and body for a valued life. Together you and I will work on determining a starting point for treatment that you feel is most relevant to assisting you with healing in your life.
Does any of the information in this blog resonate with your life experience?
Do you have a desire to heal from your eating disorder and other treatment is not working?
Have you tried art therapy for treatment of your eating disorder?
It is time to take charge of your life, begin/continue the process of letting go of your eating disorder, connect and create new meaning via art making at ATSC!

 Author- Joan Erenberg, LCPC, BC-DMT, RYT
​The American Dance Therapy Association (ADTA) defines dance/movement therapy as the “psychotherapeutic use of movement to further the emotional, cognitive, physical and social integration of the individual”. This is based on the “empirically supported premise that the body, mind and spirit are interconnected.” Dance/movement therapy falls under the category of the creative art therapies and is conducive to both individuals and groups across a wide array of psychotherapeutic needs. The practice of dance/movement therapy aligns with the the mission of Art Therapy Studio Chicago (ATSC), “to connect through creativity’ and to “facilitate healing, insight and awareness.” 

A question that I’m often asked about dance/movement therapy is "why can’t I just dance in my living room, or at a nightclub, or in a dance class, or at the gym?  Why should I seek out a clinical psychotherapist whose specialty is dance/movement therapy?"

As with any other creative arts therapy, dance/movement therapy can provide a springboard for self-expression, emotional release, increased insight, and interpersonal connection when words get stuck, or are over-edited by the inner-critic. Body- centered therapies are a particularly effective resource for stress management, based on the premise that stress, anxiety and challenging emotions are stored in the body and need somatic release. Dance/movement therapy can provide a safe container to address body-image issues or to find more comfort in one’s one skin. Many people who experience dance/movement therapy for the first time report an increased awareness of body sensation which can help to illuminate deeper, subconscious material. As in other psychotherapeutic modalities, the therapeutic relationship can provide the foundation upon which healing can occur.

Dance/movement therapy resonates and can be integrated with almost any psychotherapeutic approach, from traditional talk therapies to other expressive art therapies. Body-based trauma therapies such as Sensorimotor Psychotherapy and Somatic Experiencing have informed the treatment of trauma, based on the premise that trauma has an overwhelming impact on the nervous system and needs to be addressed somatically before emotional processing is possible.

Cutting edge research over the past decade provides evidence that movement and body-centered therapies can re-pattern neural pathways and promote neuro-plasticity, providing greater potential for growth, healing and overall wellness. Mindfulness can be cultivated through dance/movement therapy and is key in promoting neural integration.

Dance/movement therapy can provide a fertile ground for group therapy, with a wide array of populations, including individuals dealing with depression and anxiety, eating disorders, gender identify issues and chronic mental illness. People with dementia and other cognitive disorders can also benefit from the opportunities for non-verbal communication and creative self- expression. Dance/movement therapy groups can also facilitate interpersonal connection for people of differing cultural backgrounds and provide opportunities to learn how dance and movement is utilized across cultures to support the healing process.

ATSC will be providing dance/movement therapy based groups in the near future, so make sure to stay tuned.

As exemplified above, there are so many answers to the question, what is dance/movement therapy? Hopefully some questions have been answered and curiosity peeked. I would also like to briefly share my own story of how I discovered dance/movement therapy, and how it has impacted my life journey. As an adolescent, my family moved from a diverse urban Chicago neighborhood to a homogenous suburb, in the middle of my sophomore year. This uprooting triggered a long period of depression, but I was fortunate to have parents who believed in psychotherapy which in turn, led to my work with a dance/movement therapist. Through this work, I was able to find a voice to express and release challenging emotions, tap into my creativity as a source of healing, find new and enriching relationships, as well as repair the ones that were suffering. I was also able to form a new, healthier relationship with my body, which had become a source of distress and low self-esteem. Many years later, in my practice as a dance/movement therapist, I have witnessed both profound growth and change in clients, as well as an increased sense of well-being and enhanced creativity.

Here are some questions you might ask yourself when pondering whether you would like to explore the possibility of working with a dance/movement therapist.

Do I feel comfortable with and in my body?
Does my body image create a barrier/obstacle to my psychological and emotional well-being?
Am I able to resource my body when experiencing stress and anxiety? 
Do I suffer from stress-related somatic discomfort and pain?
Do I want to find new more effective ways to express and regulate my emotions?
Does my body feel numb and detached, or more like a burden than a source of well-being?
Do I want to find more balance in my life. Do I feel a connection between my mind, body and spirit?
Do I want to find new ways to tap into and cultivate my creativity and find my voice through expressive movement?
Do I feel seen and heard by others. Do I want to feel more connected to others?
Do I want to investigate ways of unlocking trauma, both the experience of life threatening trauma and/or emotional trauma experienced while moving through the developmental stages of life?
For more information visit www.adta.org American Dance Therapy Association ADTA website to learn more about dance/movement therapy.

Recently Mary Andrus, Founder was interviewed by Dana Mack,  a Columbia College writing student. Click here to read her blog post. 

Author-Mary Andrus ATR-BC,LCPC
Founder, Art Therapy Studio Chicago Ltd

​Not too long ago we lived in an era when there was a home phone, some people had an answering machine and very few people had home computers. If someone needed to get ahold of you right away, you might have a pager. In that instance you would have to try to find a pay phone and some change so you could call them back.  You would actually schedule your evenings around when television shows aired, rather than having your DVR set to record it while you are out. You would listen to music on cassette tapes in our cars which were equipped with storage space for cassettes in the center console. Driving in the car was a time for reflection, road trips consisted of a time to connect, daydream or let our minds wander. Waiting at the doctors office was a time when you might pull out a crossword puzzle or pick up a random magazine. It was a time when we knew what it meant to be patient. Our brains were able to pause and rest from external stimuli. We were able to take time to journal, to reflect and truly be with ourselves and in relationship with others. We took the time to get to know the clerk at the post office, the cashier at the grocery store or the bus driver on our daily commute.
 
Today we are living in a time when we are glued to our digital media devices. We are expected to answer emails and texts immediately and we spend most of our day in front of screens. Many of us have become addicted to checking facebook, posting the latest video, blog, article or fascinating thing to get more likes and entertain those in our social circle. We get a rush of adrenaline and feel good about being recognized as important. We are shifting to living in this virtual bubble and disconnecting from the reality right in front of ourselves, (our children, intimate relationships, jobs… etc…)
 
Don’t get me wrong, for some, having this technology has helped us to feel more connected, but it also is very isolating. There are superficial demands placed on the image that we put out into the world and many become consumed with the living in this virtual world.
 
What happens when we make art?

1. We disconnect from the screen, we tune into ourselves, we tune into the people and things that are important to us and we create something that makes us fulfilled.
2. We relax our hyper-aroused limbic system.
3. We create something that makes us feel competent.
4. We reflect on who we are as human beings.
5. We see ourselves and others differently.
6. We relax, we begin to accept ourselves and find our true authentic selves, one who can sit with the unknown, one who can transform pain, one who can take effective action and feel good about ourselves.
7. We can find solace in the art, we can feel comforted by the art materials, we can have control over aspects of our lives that we feel powerless over.
8. We tap into how we feel, we can express ourselves without having to develop the words to describe our inner experience.
9. We learn to be patient.
10. Art makes us feel alive.

 
Art therapy can support you to reconnect with yourself and others. Think about ways you can bring creativity and imagination back into your day to day life. Take a walk, notice things around you that are interesting or beautiful. Take a few minutes to doodle in your notebook during a meeting, set a date with a friend to make a collage, allow yourself to play, give yourself permission to explore a new material. Go to the art store and wander. Join us for our next Meditative Open Studio on May 6th. Make art.